Some recipes are both tasty and easy

Difficult or easy? Try both to find the best

For folks with less time on their hands for cooking, there’s a simpler recipe for Chicken Parmesan.

Roberto Rodriguez

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For those with less time on their hands for cooking, there’s a simple recipe for sauteed mushrooms.

Roberto Rodriguez

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For folks with more time on their hands for cooking, there’s a more involved recipe for sauteed mushrooms.

Roberto Rodriguez

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Photos by Roberto Rodriguez/St. Louis Post-Dispatch For those with more time on their hands for cooking, there’s a more involved recipe for goulash, like this “Bobby’s Goulash.”

Roberto Rodriguez

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For those with less time on their hands for cooking, there’s a simpler recipe for goulash. Roberto Rodriguez/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Roberto Rodriguez

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For folks with more time on their hands for cooking, there’s a more involved recipe for Chicken Parmesan.

Roberto Rodriguez

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri - Every now and then, you might want to make a meal that, as Tina Turner said, is nice … and easy.

If you come home from work worn out and bedraggled, the last thing you want to do is spend hours in front of the stove creating some sort of culinary masterpiece. You want to open a jar of spaghetti sauce and, if you’re feeling ambitious, simmer some sort of meat in it. If you’re not, you just want to dump it on spaghetti.

But on the weekend, that’s when you may feel more inclined to spend some time cooking. That’s when you might want to aspire to something with a little more pizazz. A few more ingredients. A few more steps.

So I decided to take some popular dishes and make each one in an easy way and then in a more complicated way that requires more time and ingredients.

1 In a large skillet or pot, cook ground beef over medium-high heat until brown. Drain off fat.

2 Add potatoes, sauce and undrained tomatoes. Cover and cook at a low simmer until potatoes are tender, 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or place the meat, sauce and undrained tomatoes in a slow cooker and cook at low heat for 6-8 hours or high heat for 3-4 hours.

3 Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and serve.

Recipe adapted from momswhothink.com

BOBBY’S ‘GOULASH’

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds lean ground beef

2 large yellow onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 cups water

2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce

2 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 bay leaves

3 tablespoons soy sauce

11/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked

Directions

1 In a large Dutch oven, saute the ground beef over medium-high heat until no pink remains. Break up the meat while sauteing. Add onions and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes.

3 Remove from heat, remove the bay leaves and allow the mixture to rest about 30 minutes more before serving (this resting will make the spices pronounced). Leftovers are even better the next day.

Recipe adapted from Paula Deen, via Food Network

EASY CHICKEN PARMESAN

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 (23-ounce) jar pasta sauce

6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese, divided

6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

11/2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2 Pour sauce into a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Stir in 4 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese. Place the chicken breasts in the sauce, turning them to coat well. Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.

3 Remove from oven, remove foil, and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and the grated mozzarella over the chicken breasts. Return to oven and bake uncovered 5 minutes more, until chicken is cooked through and cheese is melted. If desired, serve with pasta (don’t use salt to cook the pasta).

1 Remove tomatoes from the can, reserving their juice. Use your hands to crush the tomatoes; then remove and discard the hard-core from the stem end. Set aside. Put oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, add onion and saute until translucent and just beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2 Add tomatoes, their juice and salt to taste (you may not need salt if the canned tomatoes are salty enough). Bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat to a very low simmer. Cook for 45 minutes until flavors have combined and sauce is slightly thickened. Add pepper to taste and set aside.

3 Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice mozzarella into ¼-inch thick slices, and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, ¼ cup of the Pecorino Romano cheese, the parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

4 Carefully dredge each chicken breast in flour, then in the seasoned egg batter. Allow excess batter to drip off, then dredge chicken in breadcrumbs. Set aside, taking care not to let the breasts overlap.

5 Heat vegetable oil in a large saute pan

over medium high heat. When oil is very hot but not smoking, carefully place breasts in pan (you may have to do this in batches). Brown each side, turning once, seasoning with salt and pepper when you turn. Drain on paper towels.

6 Spread tomato sauce across bottom of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Place breasts on top of the sauce and bake 20 minutes.

7 Remove from oven, but leave the oven on. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup Pecorino Romano over the breasts, and top each breast with 2 slices of the mozzarella cheese. Return to oven and bake 5 minutes or until mozzarella is melted and just bubbling and beginning to brown. You may need to run the pan under the broiler for a minute or 2 to bubble and brown the cheese.

8 Serve with a spoonful of sauce on top of each breast and more sauce around the sides.

Recipe adapted from “Rao’s Cookbook: Over 100 Years of Italian Home Cooking” by Frank Pellegrino

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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